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iPhone 4 Prototype Finder Gets Probation
think_nix writes "Brian Hogan, who found an iPhone 4 prototype last year which was sold to Gizmodo for $5,000, has been sentenced to one year of probation, 40 hours of community service, and a $250 fine. The District Attorney's office was asking for jailtime."
The right thing to do with something that isn't yours is not to pick it up and sell it. Duh. He will learn a lesson from this.
If you find a cell phone that doesn't belong to you in a bar and you turn it in to the bar owner, or you turn it into the police, or you turn it into a carrier store that the phone came from you are a finder.
If you find cell phone that doesn't belong to you and you sell it you are a thief.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
I think that if you look it up, you will find that F. Keepers v. L. Weepers is not, in fact, a Supreme Court case, and the law in the real world is slightly more sophisticated on this matter than a handful of ten year old children would have you believe.
For buying and destroying goods that were obviously not the property of the person selling them?
And you have evidence of this? In the same vein, how do we know you didn't rape and murder a young girl in 1990? I'm not saying you did but I find it interesting that you never denied it either. I'm just asking questions, that's all.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
The whole thing seems a bit one sided. Given that Gizmodo knowingly paid for stolen goods, where is their equivalent fine, community service and probation?
Seems like *knowingly* selling stolen items could turn into a sh^Htstorm of legal charges very easily. Especially if you can prove intent; and it wouldn't be too hard to prove with a $5k pricetag.
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What crime was committed? He found some prototype in a bar and sold it to some news website. What crime was committed, exactly? The guy didn't sign an NDA or anything.
Theft? Selling stolen property? If you lost your phone and the person who found it decided to sell it instead of return it to you, would it be a crime then? Or does it only become okay when it happens to a company you dislike?
In the post-9/11 world you should assume it's a terrorist plot of some kind. Call Homeland Security immediately. They will cordon off the park, blow up the wallet, set up check points, and do body scans on everybody going in or out of the park.
If you spot a lost cell phone, ignore it. Don't touch it, don't look at it, don't ponder it, and above all, don't be the one who calls attention to it. Just keep moving. In today's environment of runaway government, chances are high you will be punished for trying to do right, rather than rewarded as one should be.
I'm not just talking about lost cell phones, of course. Unless it is a life-or-death situation, or somebody is likely to get hurt, the smart policy is to stay the hell out of any situation that is likely to involve government.
Remember that (1) the police are in the business of convicting people, not praising altruism, and (2) we live in the country with the highest incarceration rate in the entire world. Clearly, the US government's objective with the legal system is not justice -- and therefore it is prudent to regard the workhorses of that legal system (the police) as liabilities, not assets.
A man walks into a bar in Cupertino, has a drink, and gets up to leave.
On leaving the bartender notices that he has left his iPhone on the table.
Bartender: "Charlie, you left your iPhone again."
Customer: "sorry Phil, but it's cheaper than buying commercials."
Bartender: "Maybe, but my customers customers keep ending up in jail."
It's more convincing if the theory has a limp.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
So if someone finds my lost phone and doesn't return it, I can send him to jail. Good to know.
Only if, behind your AC tag, you are a huge corporation. Otherwise you'll be lucky if they don't fine you for wasting their time.
This is legally false.
Leaving something in a location does not mean it's no longer your property. Even if he did trust it to the hands of a "tech junky", it's still Apple's property. By selling the device, the "finder" illegally converted the phone to HIS sole possession and control. Why? Because you can't sell something that's not yours, so obviously he took the phone to be his own property.
When you maintain control over something that is not your property and you make it your property with no intent to return it to the owner, that is a crime, and it's called "conversion". It's like embezzlement, but without money - you've been trusted with something and you misappropriated it. The fact that he then SOLD the goods that were unlawfully converted constitutes a second crime, the sale of stolen property.
Nice attempt at spinning it into a harmless "finders-keepers" bit, but you failed miserably. Don't believe me? Ask a lawyer.
Quick summary timeline...
Dude sees an old MacBook Pro on Craigslist listed by Seller as broken.
Dude buys it thinking maybe he can fix it.
Dude does indeed fix it, requiring reflowing of parts, adding parts (ram, HDD, etc.), chronicles it at Anandech, noting that it seems to be no ordinary MBP.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2165252&highlight=macbook+antenna - Prototype Macbook Pro with 3G: In my shop now!
Dude then sells it on Craigslist himself as he has no use for it and doesn't yet realize its uniqueness.
Buyer takes it to an Apple Store for some service, Apple Store Genius bar says "This is not an Apple product." on account of weird things in there.
http://www.macrumors.com/2011/08/30/apple-genius-bar-didnt-recognize-macbook-pro-3g-prototype-apple-now-wants-it-back/ - Apple Genius Bar Didn't Recognize MacBook Pro 3G Prototype
Buyer sues Dude, wins (in part based on Apple Store findings), Dude is out moneys.
Dude thinks 'wtf', though, and takes a closer look at the MacBook Pro, asking around on forums.
Dude learns that the red motherboard implies it's a prototype.
Weeks pass and Dude does what anybody who isn't a fanboy would do - puts it up for sale on e-bay.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-20092180-248/3g-equipped-macbook-prototype-pops-up-on-ebay/ - 3G-equipped MacBook prototype pops up on eBay
e-bay bids go up to $70k, listing is pulled due to request from Apple.
Dude then hears nothing, sits around waiting for some manner of official explanation for days on end.
CNet, however, now wants to know what happened, so arrange an interview, in which they of course also call Apple.
Apple suddenly takes very keen notice.
http://m.cnet.com/Article.rbml?nid=20099494&cid=null&bcid=&bid=-248 - Apple wants its 3G MacBook prototype back
Dude gets call - Apple wants their hardware back and they can have somebody stop by Dude's private residence that evening.
Dude says 'I think not, my lawyer will be in touch'.
Lawyer says Apple have no case.
Lawyer and Apple chit chat.
Lawyer says having no case matters shit all when you're Apple, so give up or incur huge costs.
Apple thus sends over a PI to pick up Prototype MBP.
Dude hands over the MBP.
Dude then sits around again wondering wtf just happened while waiting to see if he gets compensated in any way at all.
Apple does nothing.
Dude then petitions to Apple to get his shit back.
Apple says nothing, but does send an unmarked FedEx box with parts back.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-20117512-248/prototype-3g-macbook-buyer-gets-parts-back - Prototype 3G MacBook buyer gets parts back
Dude now left with little option but either go "oh well", or sue the original Seller for incurred costs. Seller however says he received the MBP in earnest.
It would have been nice of Apple if they had arranged an exchange for a shiny new MBP and cover Dude's costs, as there's no reason to believe that this prototype was stolen and - as of the latest reports - Apple never filed it as such either.
The 'best' part? Being on IRC, watching a guy go from not being a fanboy but certainly an admirer of Apple, to being completely disenchanted.
He sold a phone that was not his. Even if he "found" it in the bar instead of actively stealing it from its owner (say, by pick pocketing or grabbing it from the table while the guy was looking the other way), the law in CA is very specific on what you can do with that item once you have it - if you found it you must inform the police, and then a period of time then passes after which you can claim it as your own if the rightful owner does not come forward. This supposes that you do not know who the owner is, but given that they clearly did (all his personal details *were on the phone*), as well as realising enough that it was an Apple prototype (hence selling it for $5000 to gizmodo)...
Yeah, pretty cut and dried case for the PD there.
So, even if he found it abandoned (and let's face it, we're being generous on this point, but so be it - we don;t know for sure one way or the other), the published facts of what he (and gizmodo) did next once he was in possession of the phone by their own admission are contrary to the law in California.
I thought someone wrote a Finder for iOS.
Look - first off, the idiot screwed up. He never owned the device. Finders are NOT keepers, you deucebag. Be a man and try to find its owner instead of trying to profit.
However.
Realize that had another company done something like this, NO ONE GOES TO JAIL. Thomas Jefferson (who was kind of a big deal) showed quite a bit of distrust and disliking of them: "I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country."
Abraham Lincoln too (specific to banks):
"As a result of the war,
corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places
will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong
its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth
is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."
So as you're lobbing your scathing remarks at this stupid man, also realize that the company whose interests are being protected by this legal act would itself not be held to these same standards.
why? Keep in mind that this was an old prototype from years ago. Not a prototype of a model not yet released (like the case in TFA). I have several prototype things, ebay is also full of them. There isn't a law saying you can't own or sell prototype things. There may have been such a stipulation in an agreement between Apple and the original Seller (or whoever they got it from) but that's something Dude couldn't possibly know.
He also couldn't have suspected the Seller of being a fence (and I'm not saying Seller was) as it wasn't being sold in a shady way or well below market price. In fact, Dude didn't know what it exactly was at the time of purchase.
No actually he repaired it, because that's what he does. He chronicles this, and it's reported on several mac-centric sites.
He doesn't really want to keep it, so he sells it on, himself, on Craigslist. He gets a few hundred dollars for it.
That could well have been the end of the story right there if not for the fact that the Buyer took the thing to an Apple Store who then stated that it's not an Apple product.
Yes, later on, once he learns it may have some value to collectors, he puts it up on e-bay. However he only expected to get maybe $2000 - never in a million years would he have thought it'd go up to $70k.
He wasn't trying to 'cash in'.
Matter of contention and certainly wouldn't have been known to him.
Except that he wasn't, not even after the ebay listing got pulled. Only once Apple heard from cnet did they start taking a closer look.
Those two are obvious, yes.
In China, these are called hero's of the people.
In early America they were called heroes as well. In fact, Samuel Slater is known as the the "Father of the American Industrial Revolution" because he illegally smuggled in textile plans from the textile leader of the time: Britain.
"Stitched into the lining of his clothing were his indenture papers, which would prove to any prospective employer that he knew his job. More importantly, in his head he carried all the secrets of the water frame and the continuous spinning process that Arkwright and Strutt had perfected."
Oh... and by today's standard the forefathers of America were also dirty terrorists.
This prosecutor sounds more like he was trying to enforce Apple Justice than Real Justice. I'd like to see an investigation of his bank accounts for any recent large deposits.
Note to Apple: If you want to keep your secrets, keep them on your campus and don't let them out into the Real World.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."